H. B. 2093
(By Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chambers, and Delegate Ashley)
(By Request of the Executive)
[Introduced January 20, 1995; referred to the
Committee on Government Organization then Finance.]
A BILL to amend chapter sixteen of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding
thereto a new article, designated article thirty-five,
relating to the office of health information and
analysis.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That chapter sixteen of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by
adding thereto a new article, designated article thirty-five, to
read as follows:
ARTICLE 35. OFFICE OF HEALTH INFORMATION AND ANALYSIS.
§16-35-1. Findings.
The Legislature finds that:
(1) Successful efforts to control the state's rapidly
escalating health care costs depend on the state's policy makers
having access to accurate and timely information about the full
range of health care services and programs offered by the state;
(2) Gathering and analyzing health information in a manner
that is useful to policy makers is a complicated and potentially
costly task requiring specialized knowledge of health care policy
and computerized information systems;
(3) Various state health programs independently collect
state health information from at least eighty-five different
health-related data bases with nominal interagency coordination;
(4) The large number of persons insured by state health
programs requires that state government participate effectively
in the development of private and public sector electronic and
community health information systems;
(5) The public and the state's policy makers find it
extremely difficult to obtain comprehensive health information
and analysis because of the numerous sources of such information and other barriers;
(6) No place exists in state government that has the
expertise, technical resources, and authority to coordinate the
collection and dissemination of all health care information
needed by policy makers, the private sector and the public; and
(7) State health programs, policy makers, the private
sector, and the public can benefit by pooling expertise,
resources, and authority from various state health programs into
a single office to meet the state's health information and
analysis needs.
§16-35-2. Office of health information and analysis.
There is hereby created the office of health information and
analysis, which shall report directly to the governor. The
purpose of the office is to gather and analyze health care
related data. The office, which shall have a director appointed
by the governor, shall:
(a) Coordinate the collection and analysis of health care
information by state health programs;
(b) Make accurate, timely and useful health care information
available to policy makers and to the public for health planning and policy purposes;
(c) Work specifically with the secretary of health and human
resources to improve the medicaid program's ability to provide
policy makers with timely, accurate and useful information;
(d) Work specifically with the commissioner of employment
programs to improve the workers' compensation program's ability
to provide policy makers with timely, accurate and useful
information;
(e) Facilitate and support the development of statewide
health information systems that will allow for the electronic
transmittal of all health information and claims processing
activities within the state and that will coordinate the
development and use of electronic health information systems
within state government;
(f) Establish minimum requirements and complementary reports
for the information systems of all state health programs,
including simplifying and standardizing forms, establishing
information standards and reports for capitated managed care
programs to be managed by the insurance commission, and defining
and recommending a comprehensive system to collect ambulatory health care data to be managed by the health care cost review
authority; and
(g) Coordinate the collection of information needed to allow
the office to develop recommended modifications to certificate of
need standards as required in article two-d, chapter sixteen of
this code.
§16-35-3. Advisory council.
To assist the office of health information and analysis in
the performance of its duties, an advisory council is hereby
created consisting of one representative each from the public
employees insurance agency, the health care cost review
authority, the workers' compensation commission, the insurance
commission, the state medicaid program, the bureau of public
health, the office of community and rural health services, the
office of the vice-chancellor for health sciences, and such other
state health programs as necessary, plus two persons representing
private sector health care providers, two persons representing
private sector purchasers, and two persons representing
consumers. Nonpublic employees participating on the council may
be reimbursed by the office for reasonable travel expenses.
§16-35-4. Access to state health program data bases.
The office of health information and analysis is authorized
to gain access to any health-related data base in state
government for the purposes of fulfilling its duties: Provided,
That, for any data base to which the office gains access, the
office of health information and analysis shall be required to
abide by all the confidentiality provisions applicable to the
state health program managing that data base.
§16-35-5. Office of health information and analysis fund.
In order to fund the office of health information and
analysis, there is hereby created in the state treasury a special
revolving fund to be known and designated as the "office of
health information and analysis fund." These funds shall consist
of appropriations made by the Legislature, funds received from
other state agencies, and funds received from grants, contracts,
or donations from other sources for services or other activities
undertaken by the office of health information and analysis in
order to comply with the purposes of this section. The fund
shall initially receive two hundred thousand dollars from the
health care cost review authority and one hundred thousand dollars from the insurance commission. Each state agency
managing a health-related data base is hereby authorized and
directed to transmit to the office of health information and
analysis for deposit in said special fund the charges made by the
office of health information and analysis for services rendered
to that agency relating to the coordination and analysis of
health care information. For fiscal years one thousand nine
hundred ninety-six and thereafter, such charges shall be fixed in
a schedule or schedules approved by the governor's office and
may, at the direction of the governor, be paid in advance of such
services being rendered. The office of health information and
analysis is hereby authorized to purchase health information and
management services on behalf of any state health program, or
combination of state health programs, upon approval of the
secretary of each department in which such state health program
or programs are located. Said purchases of health information
and management services shall not be subject to the purchasing
provisions of article three, chapter five-a of this code:
Provided, That before entering into any such contract for a sum
greater than ten thousand dollars, the office of health information and analysis shall invite bids from all vendors
qualified to provide the requested services, deal directly with
such vendors in presenting specifications and receiving
quotations for bid purposes, and evaluate bids on a competitive
basis, taking into account the experience of the offering vendor,
the quality of the vendor's services, and the costs of the
vendor's proposal.
§16-35-6. Termination.
Upon the effective date of this section, the office of
health information and planning is to be created. The office of
health information and planning shall terminate on the first day
of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-seven, unless extended
by legislation prior to that date.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create a central
clearinghouse for all health related information in order to aid
the development of state policy on health issues.
This article is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.